Once they said God himself couldn’t sink her, now they say no man on Earth could raise her! Sir Lew Grade’s production of Clive Cussler’s bestseller was hamstrung from the start, plagued by budget overruns, an excellent cast with no big name stars and a less than stellar distribution plan. It proved a fizzle with critics and a major box office bomb, despite its considerable virtues. Jason Robards (All the President’s Men), Richard Jordan (The Friends of Eddie Coyle and The Yakuza) and David Selby (“Dark Shadows”) are a disparate bunch leading the effort to raise the doomed ship to retrieve a hidden cache of ‘byzanium,’ an ultra-rare mineral that could make nuclear conflict obsolete. They employ the Titanic’s sole survivor (Alec Guiness) as an advisor on the project, but there is also a Soviet spy in the mix attempting to sabotage their efforts. Stricken with freak underwater accidents and impossible time constraints, the suspense mushrooms to nailbiting levels.
“Raise the Titanic is ripe for reappraisal…overall it’s pretty good, unusual, and certain aspects of the film are excellent. Raise the Titanic creates impressive images almost identical to undersea video and photographs made years later when the real Titanic wreckage was discovered and explored…There’s an old school majesty and epicness sorely missing in most movies today…it also fosters a sense of awe nearly all of today’s spectaculars lack.” – Stuart Galbraith IV, DVD Talk
Marc Edward Heuck discusses Raise the Titanic on the New Beverly blog.
Howard S. Berger discusses director Jerry Jameson on the New Beverly blog.
